Duck boat overhaul

[Sneaky]

Wow, nice work here!

[Eagle19]

Update: I removed the console and started welding up a top to replace the plastic part. Should finish tomorrow. However I have been trying to find a dumb wire harness to connect my motor to new controls. I've bought two wireharness' and a plug extension. The wireharness that is said to work with the new controls is $300. So naturally I look for a cheaper option, so after searching everybody said to buy the harness for $100 from a certain online retailer. I get it in only to find out it has a male plug and my motor is a male plug. It needs a female plug....so me being cheap says oh I'll just buy an extension harness and solder a female plug to the end. I match up every wire and plug the sucker in and I can get no power through the extension....so then I go back to eBay to buy the original harness. Then somebody listed one that looks almost exactly like it for $150. So I bought it thinking ok this is it and I got a deal. Comes in the mail and it's the wrong cord!!! So now I have to spend the $300 just to get the original harness. I guess that's what I get for trying to go cheap!

[Troy75]

Looks great

[Eagle19]

Today I finished "cleaning" the inside. I used a grinder flap and grounded all the carpet glue off. The hard thing with this boat no matter how hard I tried it would never get truly clean on the inside. After I would wipe it down with paint thinner dust and dirt would be back again....so I said to heck with it I'll paint it anyways. The decks will be replaced in the spring and when I do that I'll hydroturf the whole boat.

[Eagle19]

Since I reused the wood on the decks for the next few months I painted them top and bottom to hopefully slow erosion down. Lids are drying and will be re-riveted on later this week. Here is the interior painted.

[Eagle19]

Finally got my wireharness in and hooked it up and it still wouldn't start... If I jump the battery to the starter it will work. So I think the starter selinoid is messed up. Hooked a meter up to it and there wasn't near enough power coming through. So hopefully I can get that part in and have it running by the weekend.

[Eagle19]

Starter selinoid came in. $20 for the part including one day shipping on Amazon. Swapped it out and after a couple key turns it started right up! I noticed it kept misfiring every now and then though. Luckily I had noticed last week the ignition coil was cracked so I ordered one. Replaced it and it seems to run great now. I'll tune it up a little better tomorrow. The part that holds the throttle cable was broke so I finally replaced that too. Hopefully tomorrow I can plug in the rest of the tilt and trim and get it to work easily, knowing my luck that won't happen. Center console is all welded up and painted, I just need to install the steering wheel and switches. Then from there I need to wire my night running lights and I'll be set to go for the weekend. We'll see how it goes!

[MarkV]

Getting close. Looking good

[kwg]

That's nice

[Eagle19]

So over the weekend I ran wires, installed a bilge pump, wired in some switches, ran all my controls, put the wood back in and re-riveted all the aluminum lids, replaced all my fuel lines, changed out the impeller, and got the tilt and trim working! I'm so glad it's working so well. Went to the Trinity in Riverside today to run it. It did ok, I had 3 issues. For whatever reason, the throttle cable keeps trying to pop off of the throttle lever which can lead to a run away boat. Second issue is the starter would always spin but wouldnt engage. I don't know if that's a starter going out or the sticky residue is keeping from engaging the flywheel. Third problem is when I put the gear in forward(motor off) the prop spins freely like it's in neutral but it did engage in forward. But if you put it in reverse it only goes the reverse direction. Needless to say it still pushed the boat 31-32mph. I just want to make sure I'm not about to spin a hub!

Any words of wisdom on these issues?

[Eagle19]

I bought erosion control Matt and electrical conduit and made a blind late last night

[MarkV]

very nice

[kruppa24]

good work

[Pkurio]

That's awesome

[Fishinfool87]

Following

[Eagle19]

So I went hunting down in the coast this weekend and I really like the open floor bay boat style. I'm half tempted to remove the console and have joist welded in the lowered floor and deck it out. I already have to replace the decks and repaint this spring anyways, I figure now would be the time to do it. I used my blind once this season, so I don't think hunting out of it will be an issue. But does anybody have any pros and cons of doing it this way?

I need more storage and I think that would solve that and sitting down, standing up and climbing over things kind of gets annoying.

[Texas Grown]

Originally Posted by Eagle19

So I went hunting down in the coast this weekend and I really like the open floor bay boat style. I'm half tempted to remove the console and have joist welded in the lowered floor and deck it out. I already have to replace the decks and repaint this spring anyways, I figure now would be the time to do it. I used my blind once this season, so I don't think hunting out of it will be an issue. But does anybody have any pros and cons of doing it this way?

I need more storage and I think that would solve that and sitting down, standing up and climbing over things kind of gets annoying.

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean stringers? You could always put more box down each side for storage. And use the lids for catwalks. Or just put catwalks in with cargo netting bags for storage under the catwalks. Open floor plan is the way to go if you want a hunting rig. I'd leave that front deck in for fishing. But take the rear out out to open it up more. Structural integrity will need to be thought about to maintain hull strength and rigidity. With the decks where they are, the hull is prob pretty dog gone strong as it sits. A lot of the mfgs raise HP rating (moving up in models) using the same hull by putting decks in because it stiffens up the hull. Catwalks will stiffen the hull up to if you have to much front to back flex when hitting big water. But being aluminum, you shouldn't hit big water hard anyway. Cause it will case the hull material to stretch inward, and create what's called "hooking" between the ribs on the bottom of the boat. I repaired a lot of hulls that had that problem. You never get all of it out. And Hooking slows the boat down due to drag.

[Eagle19]

More or less what I mean is not rip anything out really, besides the center console. Just bridge the gap with some stringers where the pit currently is to make it one continuous deck. If anything I would think that would make it stronger since I'm not removing anything. Then all I have to do is re-deck the whole thing with aluminum.

[Texas Grown]

Think I've got what your thinking now. What would you do about steering? Don't you need the console for the steering wheel? Just curious.

[Eagle19]

Originally Posted by Texas Grown

Think I've got what your thinking now. What would you do about steering? Don't you need the console for the steering wheel? Just curious.

Yeah I would have to buy or make a new center console and a new steering wheel with cable.

I guess what it's going to come down too is how much more will it cost me. It may not be worth it from that stand point. But at the same time I've only got like $1600 in this thing, so even if it cost $1000 more to deck it out, I probably couldn't buy a boat like it for under $5K.

[Eagle19]

So decking the whole boat was a dumb idea. However, I'm going to extend the front deck to the console. I just feel like the space from the console to the front deck is currently wasted space. In that new deck space, I'll move the batteries to the upper middle of the boat to get some weight off the back. I'll also have room for a small cooler and some tackle boxes.

Also in the works, lights on the outside of the boat, and lights on the inside, speakers with a Bluetooth amp, new aluminum front and rear decks, make my live wells work, and lights inside storage spaces. I'm also ordering back to the basics hydroturf from gator trax so it will match my color scheme.

I've already cut the the frames out of 3/4 square tubing and used 16 gauge aluminum sheets. I thought the 16 gauge would be plenty for stability and I was right with the way I braced it. The part where I messed up is how sensitive it is to heat. I started welding the front deck and it buckled in a few areas. So I'm going to rivet them together and just tack weld it in hopes that it's remotely quiet.

[Eagle19]

The original deck is done and I am starting on building out the rest of the deck.

[SFAbowhunter]

Looking good man! I'm getting ready to buy a jon boat in the next few months and will be decking it out for duck and deer hunting some public land, and fishing. I have enjoyed following your build so far.

If you haven't already, take a look at the tinboats.net forum. Lots of cool builds on there. Also, if you want more ideas, take a look on youtube at Tiny Boat Nation. There's a guy I believe named Michael Lopez? that has done a few different builds on aluminum boats mainly for bass fishing, but he has some really cool ideas and things he does to his boats.

[Eagle19]

Got some lights added on the boat for night fishing! Also in the middle of painting the aluminum decks. I still have two small pieces of the deck I need to fab but its coming along.

Ordered back to basics hydroturf from gatortrax should comw in next week and i think that will really make this boat look more completed.

Also bought a hds 9 gen 3 and 3d for chasing all sorts of fish.

[Eagle19]

Also added LED lights to most of my compartments and finally got my main livewell working and added some aerators. I like idea of using an airstone aerator rather than turning the inline bilge on and off all the time.

Now I just need to figure out how to get water to my front bait livewell.

[South 75]

Awesome job!!!

[MarkV]

coming along nicely

[Whosure]

That is a beautiful duck hunting setup.

[Eagle19]

Finished decking out the front and rear decks with aluminum and hydroturf. I'm really happy with the results. I'm just going to use my cooler to extend the front deck. Works good so I can have more space in the boat during duck season.

[Eagle19]

Not a perfect paint match but close.

I also got a new to me trolling motor that's 70lb thrust. Should pull this bought just about through anything.

[Texas Grown]

Looks nice!

[Quackerbox]

Theoretically you could drill a hole through the hull in the front well and weld a piece of pipe 3 or 4 inches tall to plug. The water should only enter the well to the draft height.

I had a 15 John years ago this way and sometimes never plugged the hole.

Hydroturff looks good and I'm digging it on the cooler

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